CNN Moves Zahn to Prime Time, Pitting Her Against Fox Show

By BILL CARTER

Published: April 16, 2003

Paula Zahn, who has been the primary anchor on CNN's morning news coverage for the last two years, will move to a two-hour prime-time program starting Monday, the network announced yesterday.

To make room for the program, which CNN will call ''American Evening,'' the network is shifting the long-running political debate program ''Crossfire'' to 4:30 p.m. from 7 p.m, and cutting it back to half an hour from a full hour.

CNN is also creating a newscast to be anchored by Judy Woodruff from 3 to 4 p.m. in the slot formerly occupied by ''Talk Back Live.'' The network had already opened up its 8 p.m. hour last month by dropping the talk show anchored by Connie Chung.

Ms. Zahn has become one of CNN's leading anchors in her assignment on the channel's ''American Morning.'' That program has seen its ratings grow by more than 100 percent since January, with its strongest growth among younger viewers. Ms. Zahn has been anchoring CNN's coverage of the Iraq war from 7 to 9 p.m. since March 30 and the network's ratings there have grown almost 200 percent.

The permanent move to the evening will pit Ms. Zahn against the leading program in cable news, Bill O'Reilly's talk show on Fox News at 8 p.m. Ms. Zahn herself had previously had a prime-time slot on Fox News, and when she left it led to some acrimony with Roger Ailes, the chairman of Fox News. At the time he dismissed her importance to his channel saying he could have replaced her with a ''dead raccoon.''

CNN did not announce a specific replacement for Ms. Zahn in the morning.